<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Step-child, I release you by Polyhexian</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28916886">Step-child, I release you</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polyhexian/pseuds/Polyhexian'>Polyhexian</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Beast Wars Uprising</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Major BWU spoilers, POV Third Person</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:14:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,094</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28916886</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polyhexian/pseuds/Polyhexian</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Eject!" Lio Convoy snapped, "Hurry up! We have to go!"</p><p>Lio Convoy leaned back inside of the crashed shuttle, hands gripping the ragged burnt-out metal edges of the craft as he glared down the aisle to the back of the pilot's seat, just beyond which he could see his once-and-former mentor's hand on the controls.</p><p>"Why don't you go ahead without me, slugger," Eject said, sounding strained, "I'll catch up in a bit."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eject &amp; Lio Convoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Step-child, I release you</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Eject!" Lio Convoy snapped, "Hurry up! We have to go!"</p><p>Lio Convoy leaned back inside of the crashed shuttle, hands gripping the ragged burnt-out metal edges of the craft as he glared down the aisle to the back of the pilot's seat, just beyond which he could see his once-and-former mentor's hand on the controls.</p><p>"Why don't you go ahead without me, slugger," Eject said, sounding strained, "I'll catch up in a bit."</p><p>"Catch up in a-" Lio Convoy repeated incredulously, before he got angry, hauling himself back into the ship and stomping down the aisle toward him, "The Builders are coming down here right now! They'll be all over this place in two minutes, what do you mean-"</p><p>Lio Convoy stopped.</p><p>"You don't need to worry about it, Lio," Eject said weakly, looking down at the spire that had gone through the windshield and impaled him through the chest, pinning him to the seat, "I'll be alright."</p><p>"...Eject," Lio Convoy said softly, forgetting himself for a moment before he trembled and set his jaw, "You're not going to be alright."</p><p>Eject took a moment longer to regard his fatal injury, before he looked back up at Lio Convoy with a flickering, watery visor. "I'm so proud of you, you know."</p><p>"Don't," Lio Convoy said, clenching his hands into fists at his sides, "You didn't make me. You <em> ruined </em> me. I made myself someone to be proud of."</p><p>"You sure did…" Eject murmured, and shifted, twitching in a pained way as he raised a heavy arm up, reaching for the mech he'd once raised weakly. "You turned out so well despite me."</p><p>Lio Convoy stared at Eject's reaching hand, but didn't move any closer. "You made me a weapon. You turned me against my own people! You made me a <em> monster!</em>"</p><p>Eject's arm began to tremble with the effort it took to reach out. "I did," he said, voice shaking, "I'm so old now, Lio. Every good person I've ever known is dead. Only the monsters survived, and you- you were too good. Too good for me, for this world. I wanted you to live."</p><p>"That's not an excuse!" Lio Convoy burst, beginning to lose his careful composure, "You don't get to justify abusing me by saying it was for my own good, that you did your best!" </p><p>"You're right," Eject whispered, "I am the villain in your story, and I know that. I'm not a good mech, Lio. No one who's lived as long as I have is." His arm finally collapsed, and he hung limply in the seat, watching energon flow from his chest, visor dimming. "I didn't love you at first, you know."</p><p>Lio Convoy took a sharp invent, tensing hard. "You-" he began.</p><p>"You had a matrix in your chest," Eject coughed, "Having you could protect me from the rest of the council. I needed help, anyway, with the games- an arm I could reach through." He coughed again, hard, energon beginning to well up and bubble through the seam between his mask and his visor. "But then you were so <em> good.</em>"</p><p>"You didn't love me," Lio Convoy said, as if trying to convince himself, "You manipulated me. I was a tool to you, nothing more."</p><p>Eject's head wobbled for a moment, and he looked back up at Lio Convoy, visor dim. "Would that make it easier?" He asked, "If I didn't love you?" </p><p>"Stop it!" Lio Convoy yelled, years beginning to pinprick in the corners of his optics, "Stop trying to manipulate me! Stop trying to confuse me! You're always playing these games, and I'm not! I'm not playing anymore!"</p><p>Eject tried again, reaching up toward him with shaking fingers one more time. "So much better than me," he murmured, voice breaking, "My good little Lio."</p><p>Lio Convoy stared at his hand as tears pushed their way past his optics, caught between a yearning to hold it one last time and his stubborn resolve. He hovered indecisively. </p><p>"I'm sorry that I don't have time to apologize for everything," Eject wheezed, "I'm sorry I couldn't give you a better life than you've had."</p><p>"Stop," Lio said uselessly.</p><p>"Optimus would have liked you, I think," Eject murmured, "My brother, too." </p><p>Eject's hand finally buckled and fell, but this time Lio Convoy could not stop himself and he lurched forward, grabbing it as he fell to his knees to sit at Eject's eyeline, clutching his limo hand to his forehead as the tears flowed.</p><p>"Shut up! Shut up, you asshole!" Lio Convoy swore furiously, "It's not fair! You don't get to die heroically and leave me with even <em> more </em> unresolved trauma! You don't deserve such a good death!"</p><p>"I didn't deserve you either," Eject said softly, "But no one gets what they deserve in this world."</p><p>"How dare you," Lio Convoy sniffled, "How dare you leave me like this, now!" </p><p>Eject unfolded his hand weakly to lay his palm against Lio Convoy's cheek. "My little Lio," he murmured again, distantly, "All grown up and ready to save us all." </p><p>"I hate you! I <em> hate </em> you!" Lio Convoy sobbed, gripping his mentor's hand so tight it hurt his own servos. Eject laughed weakly. </p><p>"That's okay," Eject told him, "I've loved you." </p><p>Lio sniffled, unable to respond. Between his fingers he felt the struts in his mentor's hand go fully limp as the last traces of light faded from his visor and he gasped, jerking forward to grab him by the shoulders.</p><p>"Stop! No, no, not yet, I'm not done yet!" he yelled at the minibot, but it was too late. The final traces of his spark signature were gone, and in another moment Lio Convoy ripped his hands away in terror as grey rippled up the Autobot's body, covering the steel blue he'd always known. Lio Convoy had never seen a Builder go grey before, only heard about it. It was horrifying to watch, made his tanks turn and roil.</p><p>"Lio!" shouted Ser-Ket from the blown open hole in the back of the plane, "They're coming! We have to go, now!" </p><p>For a moment, Lio Convoy couldn't respond, staring at the dull coloured husk pinned to the pilot's seat, before he furiously rubbed his face and stumbled to his feet.</p><p>"I'm coming!" he yelled, and then hesitated one more moment, before he turned and ran, sliding out of the plane moments before an incendiary round hit it, and the craft exploded into a halo of fire that he and Ser-Ket raced away from, back into the interminable war they had been thrust into.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>